Best Builder Food for rays

[bcarlos]

For me keeping rays is all about keeping the water clean this is much harder with some of the other foods mentioned above compared with pellets

Again, I disagree. Massivore makes a much bigger mess than MP or calamari. I've never fed tilapia, but I can imagine that flakes apart and makes a mess of your water pretty quick.

Ofcourse, tank size (of which his was twice my size) and water parameters (both tanks perfect, to my knowledge) play a role, as do genetics and other factors, but considering the size I've already put on his ray since acquiring him, and the fact that when imported they were all the same size, I'm inclined to deduce that food played a pretty major role in size development.

Long term, I absoltely agree that pellets are an excellent staple, but for putting on size-- which was the OP's query-- pellets are not the way to go.

 

[michalm]

Well,

My wife and I have also a dog - York (small dog). Now he is 8 years old, very healthy shining hair and good weight.

First 2 years he was eating food that was prepared by my wife. Good quality of meat, fresh vegetables, rice, buckwheat. He was OK, but from time to time he has problem with stomach, it was hard to keep them in good weight and hair was not perfect.

I talk with my friend who is vet and he told me that I should stop feeding my dog food prepared my my self. I should go and buy a good quality food (GOOD QUALITY) - dry food, and be careful to choose according to age. It took more than 6 years, dog was eating only dry food and changing water twice a day. Dog is very healthy and I visit my vet only one a year for vaccine. That's it !

When I was in Poland I have Silver Arowana, I feed them almost only Hikari pellets. When I decided to move to US I have to find for her a new home. The guy who buy it from me told me that he never saw Arowana with that beautiful colors and that healthy.

What I want to say: I rader prefer feeding my fish good quality of pellets than other foods that nobody knows where they come from... maybe from China or Vietnam ? Everybody heard about this:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40198123/ns/today-today_health/

http://www.examiner.com/headlines-i...ers-should-be-aware-of-bad-vietnamese-imports

And photo of my dog ))))

 

[T1KARMANN]

My gist ST only got to that size after he started eating pellets until then growth was slow but steady

Now on pellets and bang size and mass

Pellets are the way to go which will be proven in a few more years after more of us have been feeding them as the main diet

But for me pellets have shown me enough evidence that's it's the best food for taking care of your rays fast weight gain is not good for any animal

So we shouldn't be talking about how to get animals fat fast as it's not good for them putting on weight steady is the best way to go

If you have a 7 stone child would it be healthy to get that same child up to 14 stone in a matter of weeks or months

 

[DavidW]

nothing grows at a steady rate, it is always in growth spurts.
You gotta wonder how rays grow or eat at all in the wild, given the lack of pellets there.

 

[ShadowStryder]

My gist ST only got to that size after he started eating pellets until then growth was slow but steady

Now on pellets and bang size and mass

Pellets are the way to go which will be proven in a few more years after more of us have been feeding them as the main diet

But for me pellets have shown me enough evidence that's it's the best food for taking care of your rays fast weight gain is not good for any animal

So we shouldn't be talking about how to get animals fat fast as it's not good for them putting on weight steady is the best way to go

If you have a 7 stone child would it be healthy to get that same child up to 14 stone in a matter of weeks or months

I don't understand, in one sentence you talk how after you started feeding pellets "Bang size and Mass" before then it was slow and steady growth. Then down further you state that its not good to get animals fat fast that slow and steady is the way to go. Conflicting statements.
Personally I don't believe in a Pellet dominated diet as I worry about a fatty liver. I try to incorporate some pellets into their diet for the vitamins. But I believe in a varied diet with the main staples being fish (Tilapia, catfish, market prawns, night crawlers and muscles to name a few) These are food types they would be more geared to catch in the wild.
And to correct one statement, tilapia and other fishes are far from messy. When cut up to smaller sizes the rays will eat the chunks whole, no small particles blown out into the water as pellets do. Thus sucked into filtration to foul the water. JM .02

 

[dparks87]

I find my rays feed heaviest on live black worms. My rays accept many different foods but when worms are offered they feed ravenously. I still think that if you want optimal growth you need very very very clean warm water and a but load of food. Again, I will say I think black worms will put size and weight on them best when feed on a consistent basis.

 

[T1KARMANN]

nothing grows at a steady rate, it is always in growth spurts.
You gotta wonder how rays grow or eat at all in the wild, given the lack of pellets there.

makes you think the same about prawn mussel or night crawlers not much of that in fresh water as it sea food

its not the shape of the pellets that rays get in the wild its whats processed to make that pellets or are pellets made from fresh air

 

[T1KARMANN]

I don't understand, in one sentence you talk how after you started feeding pellets "Bang size and Mass" before then it was slow and steady growth. Then down further you state that its not good to get animals fat fast that slow and steady is the way to go. Conflicting statements.
Personally I don't believe in a Pellet dominated diet as I worry about a fatty liver. I try to incorporate some pellets into their diet for the vitamins. But I believe in a varied diet with the main staples being fish (Tilapia, catfish, market prawns, night crawlers and muscles to name a few) These are food types they would be more geared to catch in the wild.
And to correct one statement, tilapia and other fishes are far from messy. When cut up to smaller sizes the rays will eat the chunks whole, no small particles blown out into the water as pellets do. Thus sucked into filtration to foul the water. JM .02

the main growth spuirt was down to being moved to a much larger tank but i did see other thing like the fish stopped scratching as much due to what i can only put down to to much salt in the food which fresh water fish are not used to

or the big ST had been stunted for so long from not getting the right vits a massive growth rate of a ST of 15 inch is 2-3 inch in a year not something that happens over a few weeks

what you also need to remember is big companys like hikari spend loads of money resurching foods for each type of fish thats why they dont just have one pellet on the market look at the new massivore packs they now have a ray on them

 

[ShadowStryder]

Just to clarify muscles are a freshwater shellfish found in rivers and lakes. Night crawlers also live along
rivers and are washed into rivers during rains driving them out of the ground. Thus a viable food
source for freshwater fish.
And as for as prawns, there are large freshwater prawns made available if one searches in the correct places.

 

[jdbrock]

I too feed my rays black worms. They also seem to be much more enthusiastic about black worms than they are about frozen food.

Does anyone feed their rays beef heart? I sometimes feed the frozen cubes of beef heart and they seem to love it. Is there any reason not to feed beef heart?